Contents - School of Hotel & Tourism Management - The Hong Kong ...

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Director’s Message
HORIZONS
Message from
Professor Kaye Chon
Chair Professor and Director
School of Hotel & Tourism Management
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Director of School
The School of Hotel and Tourism Management’s success over the years has had a very
important ingredient – the ongoing support of our industry partners. I have spoken about
this at several international conferences on reform in hospitality and tourism education,
pointing to the four key components of a quality programme: a university’s support and
resources, quality academics, quality students and support from the industry.
Our industry friends have selflessly donated their time, money and effort in all of the industry
partnership activities we have initiated. To give a few examples, we have more than 100
Professors for a Day from the industry each year, more than 70 executives come to help us
with student admission interviews and more than 100 companies support our students with
internships under our work-integrated education programme.
With that generous commitment in mind we held our first Industry Appreciation Dinner this
year, bringing together over 300 industry supporters and friends along with faculty, alumni
and graduating students. You will find a report of the event in this issue of Horizons. We
intend it to be an annual occurrence, to thank the people who have ensured our success.
This issue also highlights the School’s continuous efforts to enhance student learning. The
virtual hotel we are developing will provide a unique approach to workplace experience for
students who are savvy with electronic games and computers. And several faculty members
have shared their experience of innovations in teaching and learning at seminars organised by
the University’s Education Development Centre.
Finally, I am pleased to report that our hotel project is well underway. Foundation work is
progressing on schedule and the architectural design has been confirmed. An exciting aspect
of the hotel will be the prototype guestrooms (see page 11), which will allow us to showcase
the newest technologies in the hospitality industry. They will also help us in the important task
of inspiring the next generation of hotel room design.